Questionable Hospitality Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Questionable Hospitality - Essay Example However, the most striking statistic is the difference in pay rates amongst different travel areas around the world. Europe in particular is a very strongly growing travel destination and a great place to work as a human resources employee for a travel organization 2. Ever since the events here in the United States since 9/11, the hospitality industry has been suffering, whereas the industry has been growing exponentially in other parts of the world. Whenever catastrophic events such as 9/11 do occur, they always effect multiple industries, but it has been proven time and time again that it's usually only localized, and not permanent. This is apparent with the steady growth within the last couple years. In 2004 alone, the entire travel industry within the United States has grown in revenue by 7.6%, with profits increasing by 11.4% in the same time period 3. The strength of the American economy coupled with a renewed interest in travel is just a few of the factors effecting such growth. But probably the largest player in the recent spurt of production has to be within the human resources departments at many of these organizations. In the early years of the new millennium, many hospitality organizations were simply trying to brace for the effects of 9/11. With crackdowns in security at airports and hundreds of flight cancellations, most businesses within the United States lost a lot of their revenue. They could only offer odd hours to many of their employees to make up for their lack of labor funding, and often times couldn't afford to pay most employees like they used to. What 1would normally cause uproar within an industry was left fairly silent within most businesses. However, European and especially Caribbean hospitality industries experience an unparalleled amount of growth. According to a study of salary comparisons within human resource departments done in 1997, Caribbean employees were grossing approximately $48,000 USD for a salary, Europe averaging roughly 1$28,000 USD, compared with the world average of $22,000 USD 4. There are many factors that some businesses are finally starting to follow here in the United States which allowed these two areas to become so strong. Europe has many organizations which help the hospitality industry. It's always been within European culture to travel the world, it is the great land of exploration. One of the most prominent organizations within Europe effecting travel is ATOL (Air Travel Organizer's License), which is a type of travel insurance organization. It is a requirement within London for travel organizations to be ATOL protected. ATOL provides insurance to travelers who get stranded somewhere because a company or business is foreclosed, and additional travel insurance can be purchased from ATOL. This removes a lot of the work a human resources representative has to take care of, and gives them more time to focus on team building, skills training and marketing. Thus, employees of hotels and travel agencies can work better hours and are often trained better than in other parts of the world. The United States has an absence of such organizations, partially because of our strict policy of laissez-faire. Many b usinesses would benefit from a government sponsored organization such as ATOL within the United States. However, the focus has been on the human resources department